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Since Hurricane Harvey made landfall last month, we continued to analyze satellite imagery along the middle of the Texas Gulf Coast for environmental impacts. The first in a series of catastrophic storms, Harvey struck the heart of the U.S. petrochemical industry, leading to widespread flooding of oil and gas infrastructure, toxic chemical spills and adverse short and long-term public health risks from air and water pollution. We encourage citizens to report pollution incidents and have made the SkyTruth Spill Tracker available on an ongoing basis for this purpose. Harvey’s environmental toll is significant. In addition to the widely reported explosions at the Arkema plant,

fifty-five refineries and petrochemical plants emitted 5.8 million pounds of air pollutants

The images below show some examples we found that reveal flooded oil and gas infrastructure in the impacted area.

1. PlanetScope imagery shows flooded oil and gas infrastructure along US-90 between Denvers and Nome. It is unclear whether the large rectangular pond in the upper left corner of the imagery is connected to the nearby drilling infrastructure. A small pond at 30°01’36.7″N 94°30’07.5″W adjacent to a well pad doesn’t appear to have a liner, and may be a stormwater runoff impoundment. View a larger version of the slider here.

This image shows a zoomed-in view of the oil and gas infrastructure from the previous slider, with the location of possible stormwater runoff impoundment identified.

2. Imagery from Planet’s RapidEye 3 satellite shows a flooded well pad and fluid impoundment along the Guadalupe River near Hochheim. View a larger version of the slider here.

3. PlanetScope imagery shows flooded oil & gas infrastructure between Smithers Lake and the Brazos River southwest of Houston. View a larger version of the slider here.

The following images show flooded oil storage tanks identified in the flooded area between Smithers Lake and the Brazos River, visualized above:

4. Imagery from Planet’s RapidEye 2 and RapidEye 5 satellites shows flooded petrochemical storage tanks in Galena Park operated by Magellan Midstream Partners. According to a National Response Center report, close to half a million gallons of “gasoline type product” were discharged at this site. View a larger version of the slider here.

Good News

We see fewer large oil spills compared with the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, where operators reported more than 9 million gallons of oil spilled from storm-damaged oil storage tanks and offshore platforms and pipelines.

Bad News

We’re continuing to see major air pollution impacts from storm-impacted refineries and other chemical plants, some surrounded by densely populated residential areas; and inland and coastal flooding submerging drilling sites and drilling-related fluid impoundments, toppling unsecured tanks and adding a wide range of chemicals to the floodwaters inundating people’s homes, schools and businesses. As sea level steadily rises, and the warming atmosphere subjects some areas to stronger storms and heavier rainfall events, these problems are likely to get worse. Moving oil and gas infrastructure out of high-risk flood zones would seem to be a common sense action to mitigate at least some of this threat.

We’ve launched the SkyTruth Spill Tracker, a map-based tool to allow citizens on the ground in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean to quickly report oil and hazardous waste spills and other pollution incidents as a result of the storms.

We operated a similar tool, the Gulf Oil Spill Tracker, during and after the BP oil spill in the Gulf in 2010. We also helped the Louisiana Bucket Brigade launch their iWitness Pollution Map. If you’re reporting pollution in Louisiana, you might prefer to use the iWitness map.

How to Submit a Report

Click the + symbol in the upper left corner of the map to report oil, chemical or hazardous waste spills. Follow the prompts to enter a brief description of what you see. If you are able, please upload a photo or video showing the incident and hit submit.

A technology-driven non-profit with a mission to protect the environment by making more of it visible, SkyTruth launched this reporting tool to enable citizens to report environmental pollution as a result of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Read more about related work after the BP oil spill, the Taylor Energy oil spill, and Hurricane Katrina.

We believe if people can easily communicate their needs, organizations and governments can more effectively respond. Federal and state authorities will be able to download the reports in a standard *.csv format, readable by any spreadsheet or database software.

Contact Us

With your help, the SkyTruthSpillTracker should prove to be a useful resource for aiding the response and recovery efforts throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. We encourage everyone impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma to use the tracker. We are also interested in coordinating with other groups organizing similar pollution reporting efforts on the ground. Please email suggestions to us at info@skytruth.org.

Our thoughts continue to be with the people of the Gulf Coast, as they start to recover and rebuild from Hurricane Harvey. The Hurricane turned out to be one of the most damaging natural disasters in U.S. history, dropping an estimated 27 trillion gallons of water on Texas and Louisiana.

In the days since the Hurricane, we have been examining a wide variety of satellite imagery and datasets to help us try to understand the scope and environmental consequences of this catastrophic storm.

Satellite Imagery Shows Flooding of Well Pads and Impoundments in the Region

So far we have seen multiple drilling sites, and possibly drilling-related fluid impoundments, that have been inundated by floodwaters. It is highly likely that any drilling chemicals held in the impoundments have escaped into the floodwaters if those impoundments were submerged. Here are a few examples, looking at four locations along the Guadalupe River near Hochheim, Texas.

Index map showing the examples of flooded drilling sites below. All of the examples are from RapidEye 3 satellite imagery collected on August 30 and made publicly available by Planet thanks to the International Disaster Charter.

Site 1. A flooded drilling site (well pad) and possibly a flooded drilling-related fluid impoundment, 1.7 miles northwest of Hochheim. The nearest home is about 400 yards from the impoundment. A low berm around the impoundment may have prevented floodwaters from entering. The operator for the wells at this site is EOG Resources, Inc.

Site 2. Four flooded drilling sites and possibly a flooded drilling-related fluid impoundment two miles west of Hochheim. A low berm around the impoundment may have prevented floodwaters from entering. The operator for the wells is Burlington Resources O&G Co. LP.

Site 3. Multiple flooded drilling sites approximately 1 to 1.25 miles west of Dreyer. The color of the flood waters here suggests a possible oil or chemical spill. The operator for the wells connected to this site is EOG Resources, Inc.

Site 4. Multiple flooded drilling sites approximately two miles southwest of Dreyer. The operator for the wells is EOG Resources, Inc.

Drilling in floodplains is a risky thing to do. Placing storage tanks and open fluid impoundments in flood zones is especially ill-advised. Reports of oil spills caused by flooded storage tanks that have floated off their foundations suggest new regulations need to be enacted to ensure tanks are firmly anchored to their foundations. We saw similar incidents after the flooding along the Colorado Front Range a couple of years ago. Operators, please tie down those tanks!

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